Wallpaper removal

[Oh Haha]

Starting a bathroom renovation this weekend. Any youse guys have any secrets to getting the REST of the wallpaper off. I pulled off what looks like the outer skin but want to get the rest off for patching and painting.
Thanks

[Christien]

Heh, hire someone.

Wallpaper removal sucks - we did a den last year using a rented steamer (meant for wallpaper), a paper tiger, sandpaper, hot water, you name it. All three worked to about the same degree, which is to say not much at all. The combination of the steam and the paper tiger ended up getting it off eventually. In the end, we completely #$%^ed up the drywall. We left score markings, gouges, everything. I poly-filla'd it as best I could, but I think it still looks bad, even after a couple coats of paint. It took about 6 or 8 hours for 3 of us to do a 10x10 room, and that room had a closet, large window and of course a door.

The paper tiger has to be used somewhat judiciously to avoid scratching the drywall, but as the hours go by you get more frustrated and start to use more pressure...

Apparently some types of wallpaper come off more easily than others - sounds like you've got the same stuff we've faced. If I had to do it again, I really would hire someone to do it properly, or just paint right over it.

You have my deepest pity!

[Rondinone]

We've had really good luck using a remover from Lowe's (Ziff or Diff I think) plus a tiger. It usually comes off in two stages. Try hard not to screw up the drywall paper. Let the remover sit for 15 minutes like the bottle says, it really helps.

[azasadny]

Rent the steamer and get several good scrapers/putty knives. It took us three days to remove all of the wallpaper from our master bedroom. Be careful not to gouge the plaster/drywall under the paper and put down lots of old towels to absorb the water from the steamer. Give the steamer at least an hour to warm up and don't burn yourself, steam burns hurt like he**!!

[legion]

The wife and I bought a steamer for $50 from Lowe's. The good news is that it can double as an engine cleaner.

It did make the drywall damp, but we used plastic putty knives and didn't score it too bad. We did have to patch and sand some spots. Overall, the wall looks much better...

The upstairs of our house has 5-6 coats of paint over the wallpaper....

[greglepore]

Don't sweat it, do what you need to do, and skim coat the walls with drywall compound.

[Rot 911]

I'm just finishing up my bathroom renovation and also had the same problem you are having. The first layer came off leaving a brown, fuzzy layer. The steamer just made a big mess. What worked best and cleanest for me was to just get a spray bottle and soak down a 2'x 2' area at a time. Wait a few minutes then using a putty knife scrape the final layer off. Generally came off in strips. As soon as you get some resistane spray on more water. Wipe off the remaining glue with a sponge.

[928ram]

We just did our smallest B/R a couple months back; wallpaper was hung right on un-primed drywall - it sucked.

The paper tiger is probably a bit aggressive at this point since the outer layer is gone. The tip I found that helped the most was to use a bit off liquid fabric softener in warm water, it does something to the glue that makes it easier to scrape without scoring the underlying wallboard.

To echo Kurt, work a small area at a time as this will help prevent too much soaking of the drywall, which is where most damage comes from.

If the walls were painted or primed before the paper was hung, the job will be much easier as the water won't soak in.

In the end, we opted to use spray texture on the walls (rest of house has textured walls), rather than the hours needed to get it super-smooth for paint; this shortcut was a big plus on the finished project as the textured walls look much nicer IMO.

[Dan Mc Intyre]

Ziff, and a steamer, works great.

Dan

[RickM]

I've used "Diff" with good luck. It contains a solvent that dissolves the dried glue. In the past many have successfully used a solution of warm water and vinegar to accomplish the same. The Paper Tiger is good when you have many layers OR you want to remove a non absorbent wall covering....Vinyl, foil, plastic etc. The holes created by the Tiger allow the solvent or steam to get behind the paper and do it's thing. The tool should not be necessary for paper or other absorbent covers. As mentioned by others use the Paper Tiger sparingly.
The fun begins when you have to remove paper that's been painted over.

Good luck!

[rcecale]

Just did this in one of the bathrooms in my house. Removed a layer of wallpaper (The darkest, nastiest green wallpaper you'd ever see.) and underneath, was another layer of stuff that had been applied right to the unprimed wallboard.

Ended up just doing a skim coat over the entire room, primed it up really good with Killz and then painted it. It looks great, IMHO!

Randy

[widebody911]

Start-> Settings -> Control Panel -> Display -> Desktop

[red-beard]

It stinks, but it's cheap. Vinegar and Water...Yeah, you're douching the walls...